1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a polarization image sensor which can obtain the polarization information of light coming from an object.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are some technologies that use polarized light in an image sensing method for an endoscope.
For example, in order to get the surface topography of a viscera wall by polarization technologies, the endoscopes disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-240676, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-246770, and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2009-246840 irradiate the object with linearly or circularly polarized light and images the returning polarized light. An image sensor with a polarization mosaic structure is used as a polarization image sensor and is applied to only color filters representing one of the three primary colors of R, G and B (e.g., to only B pixels). The polarization mosaic structure is realized by arranging fine patterned polarizers so that their polarized light transmission axes face three or more different directions.